AnVir Task Manager Free 9.1

AnVir Task Manager Free is intended to provide you with a substitute for Windows Task Manager. This program gives you lots of information about the system, which allows you to shut down unnecessary services or applications and thus boost system performance.

The program’s graphic user interface is quite straightforward. There are various tabs that take you straight to the desired feature. The first of them shows startup items, which you can easily filter by navigating a tree structure. This way, it becomes easy to identify, for example, new items or those that are quarantined at the moment. Similarly, you get important information regarding the security risk levels associated with them. Based on that, you can switch their enable/disabled status according to your specific needs.

The second tab displays running applications and their related processes. If you click on the name of a program, you get various information about it, such as its memory footprint and opened connections, among many other things.

If you turn to the third tab, you can know about running processes. Again, it alerts you about the risk level of each of them. Additionally, you can filter out specific process, like those that are part of the operating system itself. Luckily, it also monitors hidden processes and the generated traffic.

The fourth and the fifth tabs are intended to manage services and installed drivers respectively. Just like with the other categories, you can easily sort the items and evaluate their risks to system security. It is important to point out that it lets you upload any file to VirusTotal so that it can be checked against possible virus infections.

When it is running, the program can be minimized to the System Tray, where it also shows other data about battery status, available system resources as well as disk and processor temperatures.

In general, AnVir Task Manager Free certainly gives a lot more information about your system than what you can get from Windows built-in task manager. However, it is more difficult to use, mostly by beginners. When tried, it worked satisfactory, except when it started checking the installed drives and appeared to hang for a while; yet, the problem was not too serious and I regained control of the program as soon as it managed to show the corresponding list.

Luckily, there is a portable edition you can take with you. Finally, you should also know that this product is absolutely free to use for non-commercial purposes and that there is a Professional edition you can purchase if you feel you need extra features.